Javier who?

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

1/21/04, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:28 PM CET

He occupies one of the European Union’s top jobs, so you would have thought that organizers of this week’s World Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos would have realized where he works. Sadly not.

For Spaniard Javier Solana is described in the official blurb for the high-profile event, which runs from 21-25 January, as being the ‘EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy for the European Commission’.

Solana may not have impressed everyone with his performance in the role but, surely, the Davos lot realize the Spaniard is the servant of EU governments at the Council of Ministers and is not one of Romano Prodi’s minions. Of course, that’s not to say Prodi wouldn’t mind having the foreign policy supremo under the Commission’s control.

At least the slip-up may provide the ever-cheerful Solana with a bit of small talk with his fellow delegates, who include US Deputy President Dick Cheney, ex-president Bill Clinton, European Parliament chief Pat Cox and Commissioner Mario Monti.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …